Крал на два светој

Actually, Kral Na Dva Svetoj (King of Two Worlds) can be described as a polished version of Zaginatiot Grad (The Lost City) with some additional complexity and samples. End of story. The similarity between these two pieces is striking and the later of these two offers at least a glimpse on the increase in the level of professionalism the band has gained over the time.

Basically, the concept has remained the same: cold, icy, minimalist black metal when it comes to the riffs and motives. A good deal of repetition takes also place and the drums are as strange as they had been on the preceding recording; even the strange bursts in the blastbeats are used again. The vocals have a touch of insanity with their high-pitched screams and the vocalist seems to see the actual melody line rather as some vague guiding line for the lyrics and the timing is accordingly quite loosely interpreted. A contrast to Zaginatiot Grad (The Lost City) would be the larger emphasis of the bass -- guitars and drums -- and accordingly has the whole music more power and the focus has shifted from the guitars and vocals to the aforementioned aspect a bit. Hence, it can be noted that the atmosphere has suffered in parts of it; because the performance has become more professional and impact of so-called the underground spirit has been diminished in some respect; if this is good or bad depends on the eye of the beholder. Also do the compositions sound more complex and better written than the early material, which is good of course, but the special touch has lost some of its impact.

Samples are a nice gimmick to have, are they taken from porn, horror or what else might come to the mind, but it is important to web them into the art appropriately in order to create a coherent picture and maybe even to cite them in a song again, once it has progressed a bit. When it comes to this band from Australia, then their inclusion exceeds nothing more than an appendix to the general concept, i.e. raw and aggressive black metal. It does not make a difference whether they -- the war drums or the spoken parts -- are there or not, as they are forgotten once Baltak gets the music going, hence does the question arouse what their purpose would be after all. Yet, the problems do not stop at this point. Occasionally the listener gets the impression of the art to be somehow chaotic, Stench Of Death/Reaking The Heavens for instance. The abrupt ending of Bucevole (Great War Horse) is also quite annoying.

Final bits and bytes
The sad thing is that the art by Baltak begins to wear off already, as the band is not able to progress their concept on a new level. By comparing Kral Na Dva Svetoj (King of Two Worlds) to Zaginatiot Grad (The Lost City) one has to emphasize the quality of the latter one, while the former one is nothing more than a copy of it. Polished, better produced and with some additional ideas, but too close to early one to stand alone from it can to fascinate in some respect. A major change in the concept have been the samples -- ambient and spoken words --, but they lack of coherence with the music and are merely some extension of it. They open the compositions, but nothing more of them will be heard and are not entirely able to enrich the art in a proper way, as the impact appears on a too small level. So, hardcore fans of this Australian band should give this release a try, but should I have to choose between this and Zaginatiot Grad (The Lost City), then the latter one would be my personal preference.

Recommended tracks: Makedonska Phalanga (Macedonian Phalanx), A King Was Born

Band: Baltak
Album: Kral Na Dva Svetoj
Label: Battlegod
Release Year: 2000

"Kral Na Dva Svetoj" (English translation: "King of Two Worlds") is the latest album from Baltak. This band is mainly known for two things: fervent Macedonian nationalism and uncompromising war metal. The former is well represented here- like on their last album, Zaginatiot Grad, the packaging consists of pro-Macedonian maps and essays rather than the typical band photos and lyrics. Overall, the packaging doesn't seem as excellent as it was on their previous release, but it's still much better than ordinary fare.

Moving on to the music, Baltak's aural attack on this album is a logical progression from the last one. Their music on Zaginatiot Grad was very fast, repetitive, raw metal with a tearing guitar sound and sick, screamed vocals. On this latest album, they take much the same route, but this time they've refined their style and ideas a bit to create an album that seems even more effective than the previous one.

Baltak's previous album was a constant, all-out assault, making the album seem to bleed together into one big song. On "Kral Na Dva Svetoj" Baltak have sprinkled folk instruments and a few Macedonian speeches between some of the tracks, to heighten the brutal intensity of the rest of the music. Along with one (slightly) slower song, "Son of Zeus Ammon", these also serve to break the music up into smaller "chunks".

I only have two minor musical complaints. First is the inclusion of about two minutes of very boring drums at the beginning of the album. Due to its annoying length, it would have been better if they'd tracked the intro separately rather than throwing it in with the first song. My second complaint is the way that a few of the tracks fade out seemingly in the middle, or just cut out suddenly. Powerful songs like these should have more powerful, decisive endings. However, these are pretty minor problems in an overall great album.

If you liked Baltak's other works, or enjoy the idea of fast, ugly war metal that creates an atmosphere of pain and hopelessness, pick this up. Both this album and Zaginatiot Grad should serve you well.

Standout tracks: "Bucevole", "Macedonian Phalanx", "A King Was Born"... there really are no bad tracks here.

Review by Vorfeed: http://www.vorfeed.net